Is anyone still using taurine? I noticed several were trying the supplement over the summer, but I could not find any follow up info. If you are/were using taurine, how much did you take and how often? I'm interested in trying it myself, though I do take a small amount of GABA (100 mg, 3x day).

I'm also interested how taurine affects blood pressure. Since the supplement is supposed to lower blood pressure, and mine is low to normal, I'm not sure if I should take taurine. Has anyone noticed changes in their blood pressure?

Thanks! I know you've tried many alternative treatment methods. (I like your posts, especially when you were documenting your treatment several months ago.) I'm currently taking several supplements, but would like a further reduction to my tinnitus. (I've gotten some relief, but it's not consistent.) I currently take magnesium, zinc, alpha lipoic acid, vitamins A and C, GABA, and melatonin. That's a lot. I'm cautious about increasing my supplements. I don't want to overload. I'm thinking about switching taurine for GABA, for they both affect similar receptors to inhibit neural excitability.

Thanks! I know you've tried many alternative treatment methods. (I like your posts, especially when you were documenting your treatment several months ago.) I'm currently taking several supplements, but would like a further reduction to my tinnitus. (I've gotten some relief, but it's not consistent.) I currently take magnesium, zinc, alpha lipoic acid, vitamins A and C, GABA, and melatonin. That's a lot. I'm cautious about increasing my supplements. I don't want to overload. I'm thinking about switching taurine for GABA, for they both affect similar receptors to inhibit neural excitability.

What supplements do you think are most effective?

Jazz

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HI Jazz,

Haven't tried GABA. I stopped melatonin some time ago. I think I took it too long and had a negative effect.

I started on selenium and quercetin for other reasons along with my other supplements. Taking liquid fish oil as well again. Oh, I was told Braggs apple cider vinegar (raw) would do the trick for T. Taking about 2-4 teaspoons a day with water and stevia. I have been loosing weight or maintaining and eating what I want. That part is nice!

The magnesium I take is citrate and transdermal chloride. I am getting the alpha lipoic in a supplement already along with zinc. I use toothpaste and mouthwash with zinc in it as well. Got that covered!

I really can't say which is more effective as we don't all have the same reasons for our T . And no supplement so far has done the trick as far as I know of. .... or we would all be taking it! haha

What I would be interested in is when someone gets brave enough to try that homeopathic remedy I posted from Biogetica. Now that would be good to follow.... with daily updates of course!!! I would, but I am already doing one remedy with them for something else. Just started it. My T has been a whisper for two days straight. It normally has been very low - enough that I can habituate and it hasn't had me stressed. That is good since I am stressed out enough with my business and my terminally ill sister. One less stressor is great!

I know that magnesium reduced my tinnitus as did GABA and l-theanine. After two months on GABA and l-theanine, my T started to spike. After several days testing my supplements, I discovered the l-theanine was causing the spikes. That's interesting because the amino acid had previously worked so well. My guess is that after a few months there was too much GABA in my brain. I'm not sure, but I remained on the GABA and the spiking episodes are greatly reduced.

I need to do more research on GABA and my thoughts on taurine, which, like l-theanine is an amino acid and affects the same receptors.

I'd be interested to know more, too, about GABA and whether it might reduce tinnitus. I've recently purchased some PharmaGABA, and have not been taking it consistently. I take a lot of other supplements, as well.

Here's what I've gathered on taurine, and why it may help tinnitus. Taurine is technically a sulfonic acid that has many essential functions. These function include: being cardioprotective and lowering blood pressure. Taurine is useful in diabetic retinopathy, is a potent antioxidant, and helps to lessen anxiety. It crosses the blood-brain barrier (like l-theanine but unlike GABA), and taurine is essential in numerous other processes.

For our purposes, taurine in neuroprotective, specifically it protects against glutamate toxicity and calms the brain, binding to glycine and GABA receptors. Calming the brain, obviously, would reduce tinnitus. An influential study on taurine's ability to lessen tinnitus perception in rats appeared in 2010 and is cited below:

"Loss of central inhibition has been hypothesized to underpin tinnitus and impact auditory acuity. Taurine, a partial agonist at inhibitory glycine and γ-amino butyric acid receptors, was added to the daily diet of rats to examine its effects on chronic tinnitus and normal auditory discrimination. Eight rats were unilaterally exposed once to a loud sound to induce tinnitus. The rats were trained and tested in an operant task shown to be sensitive to tinnitus. An equivalent unexposed control group was run in parallel. Months after exposure, 6 of the exposed rats showed significant evidence of chronic tinnitus. Two concentrations of taurine in drinking water were given over several weeks (attaining average daily doses of 67 mg/kg and 294 mg/kg). Water consumption was unaffected. Three main effects were obtained: (1) The high taurine dose significantly attenuated tinnitus, which returned to near pre-treatment levels following washout. (2) Auditory discrimination was significantly improved in unexposed control rats at both doses. (3) As indicated by lever pressing, taurine at both doses had a significant group-equivalent stimulant effect. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that taurine attenuates tinnitus and improves auditory discrimination by increasing inhibitory tone and decreasing noise in the auditory pathway."( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2997922/).

How this translates to humans is unknown. But it does suggest taurine would ameliorate tinnitus. Too bad we can't surmise the appropriate dose. I've seen taurine used at 500 mg to several grams per day. (I've never seen a dosage for tinnitus.) Taurine isn't known to toxic, but it is contraindicated for people with bipolar disorder and, according to WebMD, has moderate interactions with lithium. (http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-suppl...ngredientId=1024&activeIngredientName=TAURINE)

I was thinking of starting with 500mg 1x a day. I just wonder if it would affect my other supplements, especially magnesium (it is known to increase magnesium in cells) and GABA since I am already taking 300 mg.

Karen, I take PharmaGABA. It is supposed to cross the blood-brain barrier, unlike other brands. Who knows if this is true, but it does calm my tinnitus. I take 1 pill 3x a day, though you can take 2 pills, 3x daily. When I first took the supplement, I became fatigued, but my tinnitus lessened for several hours. (The same was true for my magnesium supplement.) After a while, the fatigue vanished, and my tinnitus became quiet for longer periods. For the past six weeks, my tinnitus has been relatively quiet. In the past week, it has been very quiet--some days only a whisper or a light buzz. My spikes are also less frequent. This is a great improvement from the end of September when my suffering peaked: I had moderate to loud tinnitus 24/7. I couldn't eat, sleep, read, or focus.

In addition to taking supplements, I also attribute my tinnitus reduction to a food and activity diary. Many foods and additives spike my tinnitus--including coffee, MSG, some salad dressings, etc.

Anyone interested in GABA, I'd suggest starting off low, and keeping a diary how it affects the tinnitus and makes you feel. Most supplements require time before you know their efficacy. That is, as long as you don't experience adverse effects from GABA or any other supplement, you need to suspend your judgement for a few months. Supplements need time to kick in.

I hope this information is useful. Tinnitus is so understudied. And the suffering it inflicts is so great. And so people with tinnitus are compelled to pursue anything that might lessen their suffering--hoping they don't ultimately harm themselves in the process. At least, that's my hope. I have no medical training. Like everyone else on this board, my only need is to find alleviation.

Jazz,
Thank you for the excellent information on taurine and GABA. I will try taking the GABA again, on a more consistent basis, and see what it does. I'm currently taking Synthroid, vitamins, magnesium, systemic enzymes, moringa oliefera, and zinc. I'm trying very hard to be careful not to take too many supplements, and cause a bad interaction. But, like everyone else here, I'm trying very hard to find something that will calm my tinnitus.

The taurine sounds interesting, too, but I think I'll see how the GABA works first.

@Karen: Interesting. I have hypothyroidism too. I've taken Thyroxin (which is Levothyroxine) for it since I was 18 or so.

Regarding taurine: I have tried it. Hmm, probably for around 3 months over two years ago.

I started at 1 gram (500mg twice daily) and upped it to all the way to 3 grams for a few weeks at least (1g three times daily). I guess I wanted to try high dosages as the possible adverse effects were minimal.

It didn't have any noticeable effects on me. I think none whatsoever. My tinnitus gradually started to get better on its own, but I mostly attribute it to habituation. And that process had started before starting taurine and a ton of other supplements.

When one's tinnitus is recent and they start taking all sorts of supplements, it's super difficult to confidently determine whether the supplement(s) in question has anything to do with tinnitus getting better, or if it was going to happen without the supplements anyway. So it's good we have placebo, controls and stuff in real trials. Well, everybody knows this, but just babbling here.

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Thanks to jazz for a great piece on taurine though. Brialliantly put together!

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
— Barack Obama

Personally, I stopped taking it after several months. But I did not take a therapeutic does. If anyone tries taurine, please know you'll probably need at least a month before you know something. You're taking a supplement, not a drug from a physician. You'll need to let the supplement build up in your system.